The Ponte Vecchio Bridge

The Ponte Vecchio ("Old Bridge", Italian pronunciation: ['ponte 'vekkio]) is a Medieval bridge over the Arno River, in Florence, Italy, noted for still having shops built along it, as was once common. Butchers initially occupied the shops; the present tenants are jewellers, art dealers and souvenir sellers. It has been described as Europe's oldest wholly-stone, closed-spandrel segmental arch bridge, but there are far older segmental arch bridges such as Alcon tar Bridge. The Ponte Vecchio's two neighbouring bridges are the Ponte Santa Trinit and the Ponte alle Grazie .